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MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The last of five lawmakers indicted in an undercover public corruption probe dubbed Tennessee Waltz pleaded guilty Monday to bribery. Former state Sen. Kathryn Bowers, 64, a Memphis Democrat, pleaded guilty to one federal count accusing her of splitting $11,500 with an accomplice who served as a go-between with FBI agents posing as dishonest businessmen. She had insisted for two years that she was innocent. "I needed to go on and admit that I'd made some mistakes so that I can go on and try to move on with my life," Bowers said outside court. In exchange...

An emotional Calvin Williams, once a top aide for the Shelby County Commission, apologized Friday for letting down those who have supported him over the years, but maintained he had done nothing wrong despite his conviction on bribery and extortion charges. U.S. Dist. Court Judge Samuel H. Mays Jr. disagreed, however, and sentenced him to 33 months in prison for accepting a $1,500 bribe to influence a 2002 urban renewal grant application. Advertisement Mays called Williams "a good person who's done a really stupid thing, but the stupid thing is a very serious crime. Mr. Williams made a series of...

John Ford wasn’t expected. In spring 2004, an undercover FBI agent posing as a corrupt businessman bribed state Rep. Kathryn Bower to arrange a "leadership dinner" with elected officials in Nashville, said FBI agent Brian Burns, the first prosecution witness called this morning on the third day of the former state senator’s bribery trial. The FBI agent, going by the name L.C. McNeil, wanted to meet lawmakers who would be willing to draft and change legislation in the Tennessee General Assembly in exchange for cash payments. The federal government was investigating "systemic corruption" in state government. Acting as executives of...

CHATTANOOGA — Former state Rep. Chris Newton, serving a one-year federal prison sentence in the Tennessee Waltz investigation of public corruption, has been moved to a community corrections program in Tennessee, U.S. Bureau of Prisons records show. "He is in a halfway house," prisons bureau spokesman Mike Truman said Friday. Newton served nine months of his sentence in a minimum security camp at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta before he was moved Thursday to what the bureau calls community corrections. The city where the halfway house is located wasn’t identified by the federal agency, but officials at Midway Rehabilitation Center...

MEMPHIS — A federal judge agreed today to delay former state Sen. John Ford's public corruption trial for two months. Judge J. Daniel Breen reset Ford's trial from Feb. 5 to April 9 because defense lawyers said they need more time to review evidence gathered against the Memphis Democrat during the undercover sting operation called Tennessee Waltz. Attorney Michael Scholl said he has to go through more than 5,000 recordings secretly made by the FBI and has found not all of the material has to do with Ford. "It's like looking for a needle in a haystack," Scholl said. Ford...

Prosecutors eye Rolex to show a pattern of payoffs. Just when it seemed John Ford's legal troubles couldn't get worse, enter a $40,000 wristwatch of questionable origin. Federal prosecutors alleged Wednesday that Ford received the watch -- a diamond-studded Rolex Masterpiece -- in 2004 from prominent Memphis developer Rusty Hyneman. Ford once asserted he got the watch free of charge after using his influence to try to reduce state pollution fines levied against Hyneman, prosecutors said. Neither Hyneman nor Ford has been charged in connection with the watch transaction, yet prosecutors plan to use it as evidence that Ford, who...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Former state Sen. John Ford, already awaiting trial in a public corruption case, has been indicted on new charges over consulting deals he had with state contractors while serving in the Legislature, federal prosecutors announced Monday. Ford, a Memphis Democrat, resigned from the Legislature after he was indicted on charges of taking bribes in 2004's Tennessee Waltz undercover corruption investigation. He has pleaded not guilty in that case, and no trial date has been set. The latest charges claim that Ford was serving as a consultant to two contractors with TennCare, the state's expanded Medicaid program,...

Memphis, Tenn. (WHBQ)- Even before the ink dried on the last criminal complaint, two more Memphis City Council members have an appointment with the law. The two council members were subpoenaed by a federal grand jury Friday afternoon, eight days after two other councilmen were accused of bribery.

Today I'd like to award my first "On the Pipe" awards to Memphis City Councilmen Rickey Peete and Edmund Ford, both arrested Thursday on public corruption charges. No insult to addicts intended, this award goes to anyone whose behavior is so bizarre, so devoid of any common sense, so head-scratchingly stupid that the only explanation is a serious addiction to the crack pipe. What makes Ford's and Peete's stupidity so memorable, so worthy of the "On the Pipe" award is the timing. In August and October, federal prosecutors say Ford took a total of $6,900 in bribes to get the...

With a hidden video camera rolling, Memphis City Councilman Edmund Ford allegedly pocketed a $1,900 payoff from a government informant in October, then promised results. "I'll drum up seven (votes) or make somebody walk out." That was among allegations levied Thursday against council members Ford and Rickey Peete, who were arrested by FBI agents on federal bribery charges accusing them of accepting thousands of dollars from an informant in exchange for their votes. In the second major local public corruption investigation in two years, authorities say secret audio and video recordings show the pair received cash payments -- $12,000 for...

This is the day former state senator Roscoe Dixon is scheduled to report to federal prison. The Memphis Democrat was convicted in October and sentenced to five years and three months behind bars in the Tennessee Waltz public corruption probe. Dixon was convicted of taking payoffs to push for changes in state law supposedly wanted by a company called E-Cycle Management. The company was a fake, however, created by the FBI as part of its investigation. The investigation has led to indictments against eleven defendants, including five current or former state lawmakers and several local officials in Memphis and Chattanooga....

Listen Online at 600 WRECThe Memphis elections with talk radio debate is gettin' very live! Once Andrew Clark Sr. retires from active service with the MPD ... he may go national. It's gettin' ugly ...... he is a conservative ex-military, African-American host ...

Former State Senator John Ford made a noon Friday (Oct. 20) deadline to pay $4,600 in back child support or go to jail. Ford showed up to pay the sum at the Juvenile Court Clerk's office Friday morning. Ford was ordered jailed on contempt charges Thursday (Oct. 19) by a Juvenile Court referee for back child support he owes. But a request from Ford's attorney, Edward Bearman, got that stayed provided Ford came up with the back child support before noon Friday. Because he said Ford was unlikely to flee, referee Harold Horne granted the request. The finding of contempt...

Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Harold Ford Jr. referred to himself as a lawyer earlier this week, but the congressman has not passed the bar exam. Michael Powell, senior adviser to the Ford campaign, said U.S. Rep. Ford took the Tennessee bar exam in February 1997 and failed. He said that was the only time Rep. Ford has taken the test. Rep. Ford, of Memphis, got his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1996, according to his congressional Web site.

Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Harold Ford Jr. referred to himself as a lawyer earlier this week, but the congressman has not passed the bar exam. Michael Powell, senior adviser to the Ford campaign, said U.S. Rep. Ford took the Tennessee bar exam in February 1997 and failed. He said that was the only time Rep. Ford has taken the test. Rep. Ford, of Memphis, got his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1996, according to his congressional Web site. He said Tuesday during a meeting with Chattanooga Times Free Press editors and reporters that Republican opponent...

MEMPHIS — The Republican candidate has withdrawn from the race to fill the state Senate seat vacated by former Sen. Kathryn Bowers. The withdrawal by Michael Floyd leaves Democrat Reginald Tate the only candidate on the Nov. 7 ballot in the heavily Democratic district. Bowers, a Memphis Democrat who is awaiting trial on federal bribery charges, resigned from the Senate on Sept. 1 citing "serious health problems" and also ended a bid for re-election. Since she had won the Democratic primary in August, the party's executive committee for Shelby County was called upon to pick a replacement for the District...

NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Registry of Election Finance has fined former state Sen. Kathryn Bowers after she didn’t appear at a hearing over an unreported campaign contribution. The registry notified Bowers, a Memphis Democrat, that she was in violation of election finance laws because she had failed to report a $2,500 contribution from FedEx in January. She was ordered to appear before the board Wednesday. She didn’t attend the hearing and the registry voted to fine her $10,000. Bowers can appeal the decision, officials said. Bowers is one of five current or former lawmakers indicted in the Tennessee Waltz public...

MEMPHIS — Sentencing for a former state senator convicted of taking bribes to push for a change in Tennessee law was delayed until next month during a court hearing Friday. The sentencing of Roscoe Dixon was reset for Oct. 13. His defense attorney said his preparations for the hearing had been interrupted because of a relative's serious illness. "Waiting is hard," Dixon said after the hearing. "Patience is long suffering, and you've just got be patient." Dixon, a Memphis Democrat, was indicted last year along with four sitting lawmakers on charges of taking payoffs from E-Cycle Management, a fake company...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. State Senator Kathryn Bowers is charged with driving under the influence after a traffic accident yesterday afternoon. W-M-C-T-V reports that the Memphis Democrat was treated for non-critical injuries at Regional Medical Center and released. Bowers is one of five current or former lawmakers charged in Tennessee Waltz. She said this week she was stepping down from office because of health problems. Police said a car driven by Bowers sideswiped a UPS truck. She was charged with driving under the influence, reckless driving and failure to maintain control. Her attorney says he was looking into whether recent changes to...

MEMPHIS — Shelby County Commissioner Michael Hooks Sr. pleaded guilty Monday to a charge from the Tennessee Waltz public corruption investigation. Hooks was accused of taking $24,000 in payoffs from FBI agents posing as businessmen seeking a contract with county government. He pleaded guilty to one count of a two-count federal indictment, admitting that he took a bribe during the sting operation. Hooks is one of 11 people, including five current or former state lawmakers, charged in the investigation code named Tennessee Waltz and built around a fake company called E-Cycle Management that was seeking favors from government. Hooks' plea...